'Thanks for fixing my head'

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards yesterday thanked the ' beautiful ladies' who treated him in hospital after an operation to relieve pressure in his head.

The 62-year-old checked out of The Ascot Hospital in Auckland but will remain an outpatient for more checkups, said his publicist Fran Curtis.

Richards suffered a blood clot on his brain after he reportedly fell out of a palm tree while on holiday in Fiji late last month. It was unclear how long the hardliving rocker will remain in New Zealand.

The Stones' A Bigger Bang European tour, which was scheduled to start in Barcelona later this month, will be postponed until June. In a statement released by the hospital yesterday, Richards thanked the staff for the care he had received.

'From the doctors to the beautiful ladies who make painful nights less painful, I'm pretty much at a loss for words to express my deep gratitude.

'I hope I wasn't too much of a pain in the a*** - after all it was my head they fixed. Many thanks, Kiwis.'

Richards' wife, Patti Hansen, and his children were at his bedside, and guitars were brought in for him to play.

Several newspapers claimed this week that Richards suffered brain damage in the fall and would never be able to perform again.